On a quiet Sunday morning, from a small room inside the Raja Muthiah Mandram, a melodious voice belts out Tamil hymns. A group of learners from 15 to 85 years, from students to professionals and homemakers repeat after him. I track the source of the heart-melting voice that is distinctly different from the rest. And emerges a surprise named S.Mohan Gandhi, a self-effacing 83 years old teacher, who says, he is neither a trained musician nor an Oduvar.
To beat it, he was the dreaded taxman of the Eighties who carried out more than 200 raids on film stars, politicians and industrialists and followed up several big investigation cases before retiring as the Joint Commissioner Income Tax in 1991.
From someone who perhaps instilled fear and social censure among celebrities and other VIPs for inaccurate reporting on their tax returns to a Thevaram singer who stammered as a child and without undergoing formal training in music has been taking free classes for a quarter Century is quite a journey.
“One is my past and the other is the present,” says the octogenarian, “but my life has always been like ‘ ethirneechal’!”
From the time his father named him Mohan Gandhi after the Mahatma, he experienced expectations! When a daughter was born in his maternal uncle’s home, his father named her Kasturba and Mohan Gandhi brought her home as a bride! “Without ever meeting the Mahatma, I got to be like him,” says Mohan Gandhi, because in his own home he was influenced by the strict discipline of his father, a staunch follower of Gandhian principles and ideology, and the religious bent of mind of his mother.
Mohan Gandhi dreamt of becoming a doctor like his father and five sisters but his score of 99/100 in Math took him to Physics (Hons). He followed it up with LLB at Madras Law College and secured the fourth rank in the University. In 1958 he wrote the civil service exam and put IPS as his 12th choice leaving the interview panel unimpressed. He joined as class II officer in the Revenue Department and got the IRS after a decade and was given charge of several big group cases of tax evasion.
“But I never wounded anybody’s feelings,” says the man known for his honesty, uprightness and the fantastic public relations he maintained. He was always described as the man who sat on a gold mine through his career but never took a rupee from anybody. Mohan Gandhi is also credited with forming the Salary Circle in Madurai and shaping the ‘Pay 60 Take 40’ Settlement in 1975 to help the rich and famous clear their arrears without any penalty or prosecution. His poetic notes helped him to make a mark. For instance he would liken an offender to a “drowning man trying to clutch on to every straw that comes his way.” “He touches the chord of my sympathy but not the chord of my conviction” – he would jot down.
The same eloquence surfaced in his singing. As a kid he watched his sisters learn Bharatanatyam and heard the master recite the jatis. By just listening to him and then practicing on his own, not only improved Mohan Gandhi’s speech but also drew him to music.
Till his retirement, Mohan Gandhi always heard others sing. But at his farewell function attended by several bigwigs, an opportunity fell on his lap when the chief guest M.A.M.Ramasamy instantly appointed him as Senior Trustee of Tamil Isai Sangam (TIS) at the Rajah Muthiah Mandram.
“I became the first student for Thevaram classes,” he recalls. Such was his devotion and perfect articulation that within a year’s learning Mohan Gandhi became the Director of the Thevaram Music Wing at TIS and also started taking classes. Something he has enjoyed doing uninterrupted for the last 25 years every weekend from 10.30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“The Oduvars are singers but when I conduct a class, I also scientifically explain every song and teach people how to bring God within themselves,” he says. Though Thevaram is a compilation of 10,000 plus songs, Mohan Gandhi has selected 100-odd to be taught over 12 months. So far he has trained 1,700 students who are required to taken a written and oral test after a year’s training to get the certificate.
“The students are able to pick up 20 to 30 songs during the course,” he says, “and I always tell them clearing the exam is only the beginning of your learning process.” “Devotional music is like yoga, he adds, which can be easily performed anywhere but you have to remain in practice.”
“Singing Thevaram songs gives peace of mind and my students don’t have to look far for examples,” he smiles. At least 30 to 40 students add to his group every year with some existing ones continuing. One lifetime is not enough to learn it all, he says. And in his lifetime, Mohan Gandhi has happily remained busy. Not only TIS but other institutions like the Gandhi Museum, Madurai Institute of Social Sciences, Kendriya Vidyalaya management, the Officer’s Club are blessed to have him in an advisory role. Straight like a rod and with boundless energy at his age, he visits institutions and addresses students, youths and professionals on leadership, competence, communication skills and public relations.
“Whatever I do, I do it from my heart,” he says, “and that is what develops bonding and earns me good will.”
(Making a difference is a fortnightly column about ordinary people and events that leave an extraordinary impact on us. E-mail soma.basu@thehindu.co.in to tell her about someone you know who is making a difference)
